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Nina Le Bert, PhD

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Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore

Dr. Nina Le Bert is an assistant professor at Duke–NUS Medical School in Singapore, where she investigates human immunology with a particular focus on antigen-specific T and B cell responses in viral infections. She works in a joint laboratory with Professor Antonio Bertoletti that specializes in viral hepatitis and T cell–mediated immunity.

Dr. Le Bert’s research focuses on immune mechanisms underlying chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. She demonstrated that HBV-specific T cell responses are associated with viral control following treatment discontinuation, highlighting their potential as immunological biomarkers for patient stratification and treatment guidance. She further showed that HBsAg-specific B cells are dysfunctional in chronic HBV infection but can be partially rescued by B cell–maturing cytokines and PD-1 blockade.

Subsequent work revealed that the duration of HBsAg exposure—rather than antigen quantity—is associated with deletion and exhaustion of HBsAg-specific T cells. These cells are predominantly detectable in early stages of chronic infection and are nearly absent in patients over 35 years of age, suggesting that therapies targeting HBsAg production, together with approaches designed to restore or enhance anti-HBsAg immune responses, may be most effective earlier in life.

More recently, Dr. Le Bert has been leading the development of simplified, scalable HBV-specific T cell assays suitable for routine clinical use. These assays reveal substantial immunological heterogeneity among patients within the same clinical category and may help guide future personalized treatment strategies.

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